The 18 things you must do when launching a new website | Hacker News Reader

The 18 things you must do when launching a new website

seomoz.org

353 pointsdanshapiro26 comments

For a more comprehensive list: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/72394/what-should-a-devel...

Good recommendation - I'm going to link to that from the post as a corollary to the list from a technical/development perspective (vs. marketing/metrics focus).

Thanks for mentioning me in the post, was not necessary but appreciated nonetheless.

That should be a feature list of stuff you don't have to do on a proper developer platform.

Fantastic list -- thanks for posting that (stackoverflow link).

Please consider cropping the number out of the title: http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Yes. And "must do" qualifies as a gratuitious adjective in this case.

Consider Things to do when launching a new website as a revision.

I think the relatively large number of things is part of the interest in this case.

Relative to what? Would it be OK if it were 15 things or 10? What about 5?

These sort of headlines have specific rules in the guidelines - I'm surprised it hasn't been changed already.

Next up: 24 mistakes people make when launching a website, then 41 things people who have websites should do more often, then 58 mistakes people make when maintaining websites, followed by the 4 things you should do when canceling your webhosting account.

4 posts that shouldn't be on HN.

he clearly didn't read "8 things to do when creating a numbered list"

8 comments that make HN feel like Reddit.

Rand, This list is banal. About the only thing I Can agree with is installing some analytics software (preferably NOT Google Analytics) to monitor goals and traffic sources. The only thing you need to do when launching a website, or any business, is market your product off. Adding yourself to the various webmaster tools, tracking brand keywords via Google Alerts is all a huge waste of time and only makes sense (if it makes any sense at all!) once you actually have traction - links to look at, brand mentions to follow etc.

Ari

Could you explain why not Google Analytics and provide a few alternatives (and why they are better) ?

Well I don't like the idea of giving all your data to Google to exploit. I think the interface itself is nice and versatile but do you really want to give your ecommerce data to Google? If you really love it I think Google now licenses Urchin that you can host. Alternatives include, but not limited to: GetClicky Omniture Pwiki which is open source and can be modified Mint Log Files

Excuse me, but why does this have 320 points if everyone thinks it is garbage?

As a newbie entrepreneur, I am utterly confused as to whether these steps really are helpful/necessary or not.

this is an awesome list -- we've been at this for almost 3 years, and while we had most of them, I just realized that we never set up Bing Webmaster Console -- given their continued rise in % (combined with Yahoo), it can't hurt.

other great recommendations as well -- we're also SEOMoz subscribers, so some of this is also just a great reminder about tools we're probably underutilizing

In all honesty, it is actually a rubbish list, but all to their own.

Another tool I've found very useful, that I don't see on either lists is http://www.webpagetest.org/ More comprehensive than YSlow.

Really some of these are things you do BEFORE you launch a web site. Do you really test the performance after its live? Really?

My latest project has been live with paying customers for months. I have never thought about, let alone tested, performance.

I'm surprised that "Have a business model" isn't there somewhere.

Flagged, title is garbage and doesn't adhere to HN guidelines as stated elsewhere.

Keep this out of HN and leave it for your blogroll crap, and don't pretend you didn't know any better either.

Sweet post... this should be a great blog to follow. Thanks for doing Rand!

Great checklist of things to remember!

Reply on news.ycombinator.com